Rupert Deese

Rivers and Mountains

March 27 - May 10, 2025

On March 27th an exhibition of new works by Rupert Deese will open at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, and will remain on view through May 10, 2025. Titled Rivers and Mountains, the exhibition will include works inspired by his travels to California and the Sierra Nevada mountains, particularly the headwater areas of the Kern and Merced rivers. The works echo the rivers’ geological shapes in abstracted form, in a visual language the artist created.

Explains Deese, “The painted forms in the exhibition precisely transfer the shapes of Sierra Nevada cirques and their adjacent headwaters into scaled-down versions of the landscape— essentially creating a bird's-eye view of the mountain and river shapes. I am looking to make work that does not conceptualize these aspects of the Sierra Nevada but rather stands by in the room as an articulate and pleasant presence. With these works, the colors, shapes, and lines confirm the pleasure and awareness of being in a beautiful setting.”

The works are formed by arranging triangular plywood tiles in a precisely scaled mold and bonding them edge-to-edge to create an accurate scale model of the rivers’ geological shapes. The shapes seek to bring the grace of each river’s topography—its rims, pitches, stretches, and meanders—indoors.

Since beginning to work with river- and stream-based shapes in 1991, a single, monochrome color modulated only by light has provided the pleasure of seeing multiple shades on the shapes’ faceted surfaces. Two or three shapes made from the same mold enable it to be experienced in other colors.

New for the artist in this exhibition is a series of watercolors that capture “moments out -of- doors” as light sparkles on the movement of the water. New, too, are the blue and white faceted works: two circles, two sail-shaped works, a diamond shape, and a rectangle; conversations in a palette from nature.

About the Artist:

Rupert Deese was born in Upland, California in 1952. He received his M.F.A. and B.A. degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas in the Summer of 1994 and Spring of 1995. He also worked for Donald Judd, from 1989 to 1994, first as an art assistant and then as of 1990 making his wooden furniture.

Deese’s work has been shown at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut; American Academy of Sciences, New York; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Art in Embassies Program, United States Department of State (South Korea); The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas; Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, California; The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York; Reese Bullen Gallery, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California; Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana; Naples Museum of Art, Florida; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; New York State Museum, Albany; University Art Museum, State University of New York, Binghamton.

His work is included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Menil Collection, Houston; and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno.

He has had solo exhibitions at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in 2018, 2012, 2004, 2001, 1999, 1997, 1990, and 1986.